WHEN the first lifeboat was launched at Redcar, the industrial east Cleveland town was merely a village of 100 souls.

For the 200 years since, the boat has been an integral part of a community which depended on the sea long before steel and chemicals.

In 1802 the villagers, in common with other coastal communities, decided something must be done to halt the alarming number of lives lost at sea.

A lifeboat service had started in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, two years earlier and Whitby, further up the coast, began its service a few months after Redcar.

On October 7, 1802, the Zetland arrived and so began Redcar's long association with the lifeboat service.

The Zetland is now the oldest surviving lifeboat in the world.

Although the anniversary is not until October, a season of celebratory events started in Redcar yesterday, with the reopening of the refurbished Zetland Lifeboat Museum.

Roy Barker, chairman of the Zetland 200 committee, said: "Zetland represents the best of saving lives.

"When so much modern technology is used to destroy life it is great to have this wonderful boat. She is a tribute to the people who built her and a lasting memorial to those who served in her."

Down the road from the museum is Redcar lifeboat station, which is also celebrating its bicentenary.

It is home to the Leicester Challenge II, one of the newest boats in the Royal National Lifeboat Institute fleet.

Crew member Mike Picknett's family has served with the lifeboat since his great-great-great-great-grandfather, Thomas Hudd, was with the Zetland.

He remembered saving a child of about 12, who had been swept out in rough seas near the old Green Lane swimming pool.

The child was hanging on to a beach pole and was being dragged under every time a wave hit.

"That is when you know in your heart that you, personally, have saved someone's life," he said.

Mr Picknett hopes his five-year-old son, Luke, will carry on the tradition.

"What he doesn't know about lifeboats isn't worth knowing, but times are different. His work may well take him away from Redcar," said Mr Picknett.

Mr Picknett thinks his ancestors would be impressed by the technology of the new boat, but would still recognise the basics of the job.

"The sea, the stars and the beach are no different, and I don't think there are any differences in the reasons why he did it and why I do it," he said.